Final Score: Oregon State 73, Fresno State 65 (Box score)

I think all who watched this game can agree that it was a very refreshing one-- a game in which we saw shades of last year's team and the model that we've trying to get back to for the ten previous games of this season. 

From early on in the game, Calvin Haynes and Roeland Schafteenaar showed signs of being their old selves. Within the first five minutes of the game, Schaftenaar had a three, and Haynes had two. By halftime, Lathen Wallace and Omari Johnson were leading the way for the Beavers with 11 and 10 points, respectfully. 

Haynes would end up tying his career high with 25 points, 19 of them in the second half. Both Wallace and Johnson cooled off in the second half, as they each only scored two points in the final 20 minutes. 

All-in-all, this was a much needed showing before Pac-10 play starts next Thursday. With Roeland, Haynes, Wallace, and Johnson all playing well we finally got to see a little bit of what we saw down the stretch last year. 

To me, it was clear from the start that Coach Robinson was trying to get Roeland back into the mix more. Schaftneaar started the game and played a stretch of about six minutes before being replaced by Burton, and he played more at the top of the key a la last year versus down in the paint like we've seen at times this season. It seems as if Coach Rob was using the younger more athletic guys as motivation for his veterans to work harder, and now that we've reached the end of the non-conference slate and it's time for Pac-10 to start, he's reigning in the freshman and letting the older guys play more. Jared Cunningham has been starting the last few games, but we didn't see him in the lineup, nor did we see very many minutes out of Jared (8), Burton (7), or Brandt (3). 

Anyone else think that could be part of CR's master plan? If so, it worked well on Wednesday night. 

Post-game quotes from Robinson and Haynes (via the Beaver Sports Network on KPAM 860) after the jump:

--Jake | (jake.buildingthedam@gmail.com)

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Impact-freshman Joe Burton has been a pleasant surprise for Craig Robinson's team this season, averaging 6.4 points and five rebounds in fifteen minutes per game. (Photo by Ethan Erickson)

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Oregon State vs. Fresno State - 5:30pm, Gill Coliseum - TV on FSN

Craig Robinson and Oregon State can make history tonight with a win against Fresno State-- it would be the program's 1,600th win, and put them in a elite class of only 15 other programs who have accomplished the feat.

But more importantly, the Beavers need this win in order to climb back above .500 and clean up some issues before Pac-10 play starts December 31 with a showdown with Washington, a team expected to be a high seed in the NCAA tournament this season.

The Beavers recently bounced back from a Chicago road trip which featured two disappointing losses to beat Mississippi Valley State, a team that is now 1-11 and struggling heading into their Southwestern Athletic Conference schedule.

The Beavers should get a stiffer test tonight from Fresno State, which enteres the game at 6-5 on the year. From my research, they seem better than their record indicates. In their last game, they lost to a good Montana team after holding a sizable lead but then going cold, making only one basket in the final nine minutes of the game. Like the Beavers, they have two bad losses this season, one to Seattle and the other to Santa Clara. Oregon State's two bad losses have come to Sacramento State and Illinois-Chicago. Throw in the season opener down at Texas A&M Corpus Christi, and these two teams have both had their setbacks this year.

--Jake | (jake.buildingthedam@gmail.com)

More photos » by Daniel Gluskoter - AP

1 day ago: Oregon State linebacker David Paaluhi puts a hit on BYU quarterback Max Hall during the second half of the Las Vegas Bowl NCAA college football game in Las Vegas, Tuesday Dec. 22, 2009, won by BYU, 44-20. (AP Photo/Daniel Gluskoter)

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Oregon State had been getting used to the trend of using bowl games as a nice trip to finish off their seasons, send off their seniors, and reward fans and boosters. They've also made a habit of winning such games, which may be part of the reason that Beaver Nation is reeling from last night's 44-20 loss to BYU. 

It had been seven years since the Beavers lost a bowl game. Their last five bowl game tries, Oregon State has ended it's season on a high. 

But here we are today, with sour tastes in our mouthes, after the Beavers went from Rose Bowl-hopeful to Las Vegas Bowl laughingstock. 

Some links for you to sift through on this foggy, calm-winded Wednesday in the Willamette Valley:

Portland media icon Dwight Jaynes weighs in on this one over at his blog:

Unless you spent a lot of money going to Las Vegas, expecting a win, there's not too much to feel bad about off that MAACO Bowl experience. Those games simply don't matter. And the last time BYU smacked a team around like that in the Vegas Bowl it was the Ducks and Oregon came within a whisker of playing for a national title the following season. (. . .)

Move on. And as I keep telling you, unless you're in a BCS bowl - or even the national championship game - it really doesn't matter.

I don't agree with this. Sure, the national audience flipped off the game at some point in the third quarter and will forget about the game by next week at the latest, but this loss does matter. We can't just write off this loss like it never happened-- it did, and it needs to be addressed. No team-- not even USC-- is going to qualify for a BCS game ever year. Mike Riley's "always get better" attitude is what this program is built on, and he even echoed something along those lines as he was interviewed on the sidelines just before kickoff. This program learned a lot from the two losses at the end of the season, and you bet they're going to learn from them and get better. Saying that only BCS games or National Championship games matter cheats the system that Mike Riley has established. Sure, Riley needs to get his team to a Rose Bowl sooner rather than later, but that's not going to happen magically overnight, and Beaver fans aren't going to show up just for that one game. It's going to happen with hard work, and Beaver fans are going to care during the entire ride. 

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The first half didn't go as planned. Will the second half be any better?

The Beaver defense looked like it was up to the challenge of stopping Max Hall and company on BYU's opening two possessions, but the tide quickly turned. The wind has really been having an affect on Sean Canfield, as he hasn't been his normal self (3/12 at last check).

I won't be able to update this post with score updates as frequently, so head to the thread and join the conversation to see how the game is going. I'll be back in full form sometime after the end of the game.

--Jake | (jake.buildingthedam@gmail.com)

NO. 18 OREGON STATE vs. NO. 14 BYU - 5pm. Sam Boyd Stadium - TV on ESPN

Here's the place to talk about the first half of what should be one of the better bowl games we'll see for at least a week or so.

If you're a fan of another team visiting here because, well, you have nothing better to do on a Tuesday night but watch and talk about football, welcome!

Keep your eye out for game updates here.

UPDATE, 8:46 1st Quarter: It's clear that the weather (the wind) is going to play a big role in this game. BYU's offense goes three and out twice, and Oregon State takes over with great field position. Quizz picks up a hefty chunk, and a James fly sweep put the Beavers inside the five. Canfield burrows in behind his offensive line, which is dominating the trenches, and the Beavers lead 7-0.

UPDATE, 2:47 1st Quarter: A long BYU drive wipes away most of the first quarter and ties up the game. In other news, it's so windy that the kicking net blew through the goal posts and got caught, providing a few minutes of entertainment as the officials tried to free the net. BYU 7. OSU 7.

UPDATE, 1:41 1st Quarter: Jaquizz Rodgers fumbles for the first time on his Oregon State career on a dropped lateral, and Matt Bauman scoops and scores for six. BYU 14, OSU 7. 

END 1ST QUARTER... BYU 14, OSU 7.

UPDATE, 9:21 2nd Quarter: Mitch Payne 28 yard field goal is good, and it's BYU 17. OSU 7

UPDATE. 6:22 2nd Quarter: Max Hall pass complete to Luke Ashworth for 25 yards, and it's BYU 23, OSU 7 after the PAT is blocked.

HALFTIME... BYU 23, Oregon State 7. New thread in a few minutes.

GO BEAVERS!

--Jake | (jake.buildingthedam@gmail.com)

We're only hours away from kickoff of the first bowl game that will feature two ranked teams, the Maaco Last Vegas Bowl. In case you still haven't made your plans for the game, kickoff is set for 5:00 PM on ESPN. The game will also be available on ESPN360.com for those of you without access to the Worldwide Leader on your television set.

Speaking of ESPN, they're pretty amped up for this game, and why not? Like I mentioned above, it's the first bowl game that features two ranked teams, they both have prolific offenses-- quarterbacks, in particular-- and it's the only game of the night, exclusively on their network.

Staying on the topic if ESPN, we'll shift to their bloggers now. This has already been brought up here on BtD, but here it is again, for good measure: Ted Miller is picking BYU, and Graham Watson (covers the smaller conferences for ESPN) picked the Beavers.

Their reasoning? Watson likes the overall team speed of Oregon State to overwhelm BYU. Miller is worried about OSU's secondary, and thinks the fact that BYU is riding high after a win over Utah will put them over the top.

However you look at those two perspectives, it sticks to the trend that the better defense in tonight's game will win.

OSU wide receiver/holder Taylor Kavanaugh's last diary in The Oregonian doesn't dissapoint. Along with the other twelve seniors on the team, he'll be playing his last college football game today.

A lot has been made this week of the missionaries BYU has on their roster, esentially means that a lot of BYU's players are two years older than the players they are lining up against on OSU's roster. However, the Beavers do have four players who have returned from missions-- Sioeli Nau, linebacker Walker Vave, as well as Kevin and Devin Unga. 

Dick Harmon of the Desert News has his take on the Canfield/ Hall duel:

Hall versus Canfield. Sounds like a boxing card. But it's a great story line to start with Tuesday night in a city known for its marquees.

If there's any other links you'd like to share, drop them here.

--Jake | (jake.buildingthedam@gmail.com)

More photos » by Greg Wahl-Stephens - AP

The best defense tonight will likely win the game (we'll miss you Tim Clark)

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Want to see some offense? You should get just that in tonight's MAACO Bowl from Las Vegas, which starts at 5PM Pacific on ESPN. 

When Oregon State has the ball...

We all know what Oregon's State's offense has the power and potential to do. One of the biggest questions after the Civil War loss and a week or so away from football has to do with how this team will come out of the gate. Oregon State has outscored its opponents 300-102 in the first quarter over the last 52 games, including 265-78 in the last 28. But will they be able to find their rhythm early in this one, and put points on the board?

This will be the first bowl game start for OSU senior QB Sean Canfield, and he hopes to use this game to put an exclamation point on his already stellar season. He has just over 3,100 yards on the year, and has 21 touchdowns to six interceptions. His completion percentage is through the roof at 70%-- he'll shatter Matt Moore's previous record of 60.6% from the 2006 season. 

Jacquizz Rodgers, James Rodgers, Joe Halahuni, and Damola Adeniji are the four other big threats on offense. Those four players combined are responsible for 88 percent of the overall offensive production, and have been the reason-- along with Canfield-- that the Beavers are averaging 419 offensive yards per game. The beauty of the Oregon State offense this year is that it keeps defenses off balance-- focus on Quizz, and you'll get hurt downfield, and vice versa.  

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More photos » by Tony Gutierrez - AP

Max Hall + Sean Canfield = two of the best, most efficient quarterbacks in the nation.

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This post originally published last week, but bumped back to the top in case you missed it. 

The Beavers may have been a quarter and a half away from a Rose Bowl, but they've now fallen past the Holiday, past the Sun (no-repeat clause), and the Emerald to the Maaco Las Vegas Bowl, well they will play BYU, a very good opponent out of the Mountain West Conference.

Get ready for an all out air raid in this game-- it features two of the best quarterbacks in the country in Sean Canfield and Max Hall. Hall lead the MWC in passing with 280.7 yards per game, and is completing passes at a 67.5 percentage. He's the ninth most efficient passer in the country, which is interesting, because Sean Canfield ranks fourth in at statistic at exactly 70 percent.

Not only do the Cougars have a potent passing attatck with Max Hall, their running game is solid as well. They rank fourth in their conference in total passing, but their star running back, Harvey Unga, leads the conference in rushing at just over 92 yards per game. Unga is a junior, and just got over the 1,000 yard mark in BYU's most recent game against Utah, which they squaked out 26-23.  JJ Di Luigi and BryanKarlyn, both sophomore running backs, are viable backups who both average around 20 yards per game.

Max Hall's favorite target is his tight end, senior Dennis Pitta. He became BYU's all-time leader in receptions in the Cougars' win over Utah last week, and is averaging 63.8 yards per game. While he leads the receivers, he's definitely not the only target the OSU secondary will have to watch out for: Max Hall likes to spread the ball around. Five receivers average over 30 yards per game for the Cougars. Like Pitta, sophomore McKay Jacobsen averages around 60 yards per game, and he's BYU's big-play threat. He has 21 catches for 529 yards, which means he's averaging around 25 yards per catch.

While BYU's offense gets most of the credit, their defense has been a major factor in their success as well. The Cougars are best known for overpowering MWC opponents with their offense, but their defense is talented as well. Senior defensive lineman Jan Jorgensen has ten and a half tackles for loss on the season, and is fourth in the conference with six and a half sacks. The Cougar secondary has 13 interceptions on the year, four of those going to junior defensive back Andrew Rich, and 3 to JR DB Brian Logan.

Overall, the BYU defense ranks fourth in the MWC, and 35th in the nation, giving up 331 yards per game. They've been giving up 112 rushing yards pe rgame and 219 passing yards per game-- All of which are below Oregon State's season offensive averages.

This will be the first time that the Las Vegas Bowl will feature two ranked teams, and it's the fourth time in a row BYU will have played in Vegas. Oregon State's last trip was in 2003, when they defeated New Mexico 55-14 in Mike Riley's first bowl game at OSU.

BYU perspective at Vanquish The Foe.

--Jake | (jake.buildingthedam@gmail.com)

Oregon State (4-5) vs. Mississippi Valley State (1-9) - 7pm, Gill Coliseum - Radio on KPAM 860

After getting above .500 for the first time in a long time last week, the Beavers dropped two games on their road trip to Chicago and are now 4-5 on the year with two games left before conference play begins on New Years Eve.